windows\system32\config\system file is missing.

R

Rodney Brown

Please help. I'm getting this error while the computer is
booting up in Windows XP Pro. I'm unable to start in Safe
Mode to do anything. I was going to reinstall XP pro but I
really don't want to lose everything if there is a way
around it. Is there a way around this? If not, is there a
way around this so that I can reinstall XP Pro but not
lose everything.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Sincerely,
Rodney Brown
 
N

null

Rodney said:
Please help. I'm getting this error while the computer is
booting up in Windows XP Pro. I'm unable to start in Safe
Mode to do anything. I was going to reinstall XP pro but I
really don't want to lose everything if there is a way
around it. Is there a way around this? If not, is there a
way around this so that I can reinstall XP Pro but not
lose everything.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Sincerely,
Rodney Brown
Click to expand...

You can try running a repair - rather than a reinstall - by booting to
the WinXP CD. No guarantees you won't lose your data, but you probably
won't.

--
The reader should exercise normal caution and backup the Registry and
data files regularly, and especially before making any changes to their
PC, as well as performing regular virus and spyware scans. I am not
liable for problems or mishaps that occur from the reader using advice
posted here.
 
R

Russ Golowin

Rodney,

I can't help you right now but I will say that I have the
same exact problem...started today. I wonder what caused
it?

I am in the same boat as you, so hopefully I will find
something out or others will help.

A starting place is to search at microsoft.com for "how
to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents
windows xp from starting". This discusses the problem,
but it asks me for a password in recovery console...and I
dont remember ever setting one.

Anyone with help on this password issue please help me/us.

Thank you
 
M

Mike

I too get this message on boot. I'm trying to deploy an XP
image using many different methods all with the same
result. I'm deploying a dual boot dos, xp system with
fat32 which works fine with Win2k but will not work with
xp. I tried all solutions in that knowledge base article
and nothing works. In our situation dos is c and xp is d,
the image was installed and sysprep'd that way. The image
is acpi to acpi but different Dell models. Does anyone
have any idea why this won't work? We've used a zip
imaging system, and two other sector by sector copy
methods (ghost and another) nothing works! Still get this
same exact error. I have also restored the ntldr and
ntdetect.com from the xp disk on the primary active dos
partition and the boot.ini is correct. I've been working
on this issue for weeks and I'm not getting anywhere,
PLEASE HELP ME!!!
 
M

Mike

I too get this message on boot. I'm trying to deploy an XP
image using many different methods all with the same
result. I'm deploying a dual boot dos, xp system with
fat32 which works fine with Win2k but will not work with
xp. I tried all solutions in that knowledge base article
and nothing works. In our situation dos is c and xp is d,
the image was installed and sysprep'd that way. The image
is acpi to acpi but different Dell models. Does anyone
have any idea why this won't work? We've used a zip
imaging system, and two other sector by sector copy
methods (ghost and another) nothing works! Still get this
same exact error. I have also restored the ntldr and
ntdetect.com from the xp disk on the primary active dos
partition and the boot.ini is correct. I've been working
on this issue for weeks and I'm not getting anywhere. Any
help is appreciated...
 
B

Bruce Chambers

Greetings --

It won't work because, as you say, you have "different Dell
models." For disk imaging and WinXP, the source and target computers
must be _identical_.

Normally, and assuming a retail license (many OEM installations
and licenses are not transferable to a new motherboard - check yours
_before_ starting), unless the new motherboard is virtually identical
(same chipset, same IDE controllers, same BIOS version, etc.) to the
one on which the WinXP installation was originally performed, you'll
need to perform a repair (a.k.a. in-place upgrade) installation, at
the very least:

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341

As always when undertaking such a significant change, back up any
important data before starting.

This will also require re-activation, unless you have a Volume
Licensed version of WinXP Pro installed. If it's been more than 120
days since you last activated that specific Product Key, you'll most
likely be able to activate via the internet without problem. If it's
been less, you might have to make a 5 minute phone call.


Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH
 
M

Mike

The same method that I'm using was used sucessfully to
deploy a single image of Windows 2000 but will not work
with XP. They have the same acpi hal so it should work.
Video card, cd rom, nic are deleted from the device
manager and sysprep is used with mini install checked
along with recreate SIDS. The installations use they're
own driver directories with specific drivers copied from
the network at the time of install and a sysprep.inf file
to locate those drivers for the specific model. With 2k
this image was successfully deployed to all different Dell
model desktops and laptops. It works, just not with XP for
some reason.
 

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